Golda Meir: The Iron Lady of Israel

In the days leading up to Israel's independence, Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion facedopposition on all sides. The Americans refused to support a Jewish state. The Arabs threatened war. And Ben-Gurion's own cabinet was divided.

Israel's only chance for peace with the Arabs now rested on a former schoolteacher from Wisconsin -- a woman Ben-Gurion would later call "the best man in his cabinet".